I’m so excited to be a spot on the Reclaimed Blog Tour. Jennifer Rodewald is an awesome author, so I’m happy to talk about her novel. Have you read it? If not, be sure to check out the info, my review, and enter the GIVEAWAY!
Let’s get started!
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Genre: Christian, Contemporary
Publisher: Rooted Publishing Publication date: February 28, 2017 Number of pages: 346 Left wounded by a marriage cut short, Suzanna Wilton leaves city life to take up residency in a tiny Nebraska town. Her introduction to her neighbor Paul Rustin is a disaster. Assuming he’s as underhanded as the other local cowboys she’s already met, Suzanna greets him with sharp hostility. Though Paul is offended by |
Will Suzanna ever find peace?
***2014 Olympia Winner***
Jen lives and writes in a lovely speck of a town where she watches with amazement while her children grow up way too fast, gardens, and marvels at God’s mighty hand in everyday life. Four kids and her own personal superman make her home in southwestern Nebraska delightfully chaotic.
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Warmth shaded his complexion crimson. “See, not a very good story, right?”
“Why?”
“Why did I do those things?”
She pressed her lips together, wondering why she pushed him but nodded anyway.
“I don’t really know, Suz. I was just angry, and I’m not even sure why. I didn’t want to live here, I didn’t want to be nothin’, and I couldn’t see anything beyond myself. I didn’t have a real reason.”
“What happened?”
Paul’s eyes softened, and a smile crept over his features again. “I didn’t graduate from Rock Creek—I went to Boys Town in March of my senior year. My grandpa came to Omaha to visit me in April with a proposal. If I studied and got my GED, I could come out and live with them. I would have to work like a ranch hand, but they’d keep me on until I figured out what I wanted to do with my life.
“It wasn’t the out I was looking for. I didn’t want to come back to Rock Creek. I thought, man, give me some money and let me go find a life. But Boys Town wasn’t exactly Park Place, and it didn’t look like I’d be passing GO anytime soon, so I agreed.
“I must have thought it would be like visiting my grandparents when I was a kid. You know, farm breakfast at nine every morning, Grandma always ready with a cookie, and I’d collect eggs or do some trivial chore as a token of work.”
Paul chuckled and rubbed his neck. “Nope. My grandpa meant some w-o-r-k. I stayed in the bunkhouse, which was nothing more than a tin can trailer. If I wanted breakfast, I had to get up at six to eat with them because Grandma had things to do. They paid me what they would have paid a hand, and out of my earnings came the cost of rent, electricity, and food. When I slacked off that winter, my bunkhouse got awful cold because Grandpa didn’t pay me enough to cover both heat and food.”
Suzanna’s eyebrows rose. “Seriously? Your grandpa put you out in the cold?”
He laughed. “Tough love, Suz. I found out later they’d set a threshold on the thermostat of around fifty degrees so the pipes wouldn’t freeze, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought. But it felt awful cold. I hated it. And then… I didn’t.”
He stopped, and Suzanna puckered her eyebrows. His attention wandered toward his place south of hers, and she wondered if the scenes unfolded in his mind as he recounted them.
“It came time for calving, and Grandpa said it was my responsibility.” He rubbed a hand against his jeans, and the apples of his cheeks lifted. That look said it all—he loved his work. “I was so tired, but I knew he’d hold me responsible if something went sour. I wound up with a couple of bucket calves, and somewhere in between the late nights and early mornings while checking heifers and feeding orphans, I found myself. I found who God had made me to be, where I needed and wanted to be. It was right here the whole time.”
Bronco shifted under her, and Suzanna slipped a hand around the saddle horn. Fierce rebellion melted away while Paul fed a few cows?
“As simple as that?”
Paul’s gaze fell on her, his relaxed countenance contradicting his story. He looked toward the spring, then the trees, and finally to the hill rising before them.
“Not simple.” He returned his attention to her. “That’s the short version, but it wasn’t simple. I wrestled everyone, including God, for things I thought I wanted. There was a whole lot of humbling that had to happen before I made peace with life. Pride made me useless; selfishness made me difficult.”
His explanation created more questions than it offered answers. Suzanna longed for answers. His story, his life, looked nothing like hers, sounded nothing like hers, but he had peace.
Peace eluded her. She hadn’t found it in church, not the lasting kind. She hadn’t secured it in sacrifice. It wasn’t in love. Love had made her ache all over again.
Where had Paul found this peace?
“Shall we take the hill, Pickle?” Paul gathered his reins and nodded toward the rise.
The mare perked her head, and Bronco followed. Opportunity slipped away, like the waters that rose from the depths of the earth and tumbled down the creek. Suzanna swallowed, pushing a smile across her lips. At her nod, Paul took the lead.
Peace remained hidden with the secret of Rock Creek.
And wow, just wow. There’s something special about rereading a book. All the nuances you missed the first time, shine bright the second go round. It was almost like reading it for the first time.
The biggest take away “Love never fails.” It’s a theme repeated in Reclaimed. It’s a truth we all must learn in our life. Ms. Rodewald weaves this truth in the stories of Paul and Suzanna, affectionately knows as “Pickle.”
What Paul mistook has a sour disposition, covered up wounds so deep, that Suzanna’s joy couldn’t be found. She wanted the sweet peace Paul exuded. Wanted the sweet peace that had eluded for so long. One quote that speaks to this “All the harmony one could imagine, and yet she was, as ever, unsettled, dissatisfied. Restless.”
What I love about Ms. Rodewald’s writing is her heart covers the words of this sweet romance. It’s messy, painful, and oh so sweet once Suzanna’s soul has been reclaimed by God. It’s Ms. Rodewald’s signature style, to leave her heart on the pages of her story. It exudes from the character, it’s touches your heart, until you can’t tell where the story ends and where your emotions find reality.
Ms. Rodewald’s writing is real and filled with the graceful love of Christ. Take a journey on the plains of Nebraska as Suzanna reclaims what was lost.
*I give this 5 stars because it’s one worth rereading to savor the truth of God’s love.
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Toni Shiloh 
Toni! Thank you for this beautiful review! You just made my heart sing!
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I love your writing and Reclaimed is such a great book to start with.
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